The present disclosure relates to the field of absorption spectroscopy. More specifically, it provides a means by which vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light may be employed to facilitate spectroscopy of matter in the VUV region.
Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light is strongly absorbed by virtually all forms of matter. Hence, from a theoretical viewpoint VUV absorption might be expected to provide an ideal means of probing such. Unfortunately in practice, realizations of VUV based absorption systems have remained largely elusive due to a lack of suitable (i.e. efficient) components and demanding environmental considerations. As a result relatively little effort has been directed towards exploiting this region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
It follows that there would be great benefit associated with overcoming these difficulties and developing VUV absorption systems that could be used to investigate a wide range of materials. It would be further advantageous if such systems could be readily coupled with established analytical techniques so as to facilitate integration into existing laboratories with minimum effort and expense.